Task force votes on sound checks

Denton’s official gas drilling task force made scant progress this week with new recommendations to reduce noise created by natural gas drilling and production facilities. A 3-2 vote defeated a measure to limit the amount of noise such facilities could make at night and in neighborhoods.

Measure to limit noise from drilling defeated

Denton’s official gas drilling task
force made scant progress this week with new recommendations to reduce noise
created by natural gas drilling and production facilities.

A 3-2 vote defeated a measure to limit
the amount of noise such facilities could make at night and in neighborhoods.

Another 3-2 vote encouraged the city to
evaluate whether low-frequency noise should be included in the city’s present
noise limits. But shortly after that vote, task force member John Siegmund
backpedaled, saying he was only in favor of evaluating the idea, not putting
forth any additional regulation that would bring a cost to doing business.

The noise items were brought forth by
Vicki Oppenheim, an environmental planner, but fellow task force member Tom La
Point, an environmental researcher at the University of North Texas, did the
talking.

Because operators are looking to drill
and install gas production facilities in all areas of the city no matter the
zoning, reducing noise makes sense, La Point said.

“The idea has a lot of value because of
zoning — it’s a value to have lower noise,” La Point said, calling the city’s
ability to scientifically measure sound a “bright light” for such regulations.

Denton planning director Mark Cunningham
and Darren Groth, head of the city’s new gas inspection program, described some
of the current enforcement problems, or those they could have, with noise
regulations, depending on how they are drafted.

At first, Ken Banks, director of
environmental services, said the city’s current noise limits were well vetted.
But later, when questioned by the task force about noise exceptions granted to
other businesses, Cunningham told the group that the current noise limit — 75
decibels at 300 feet from a production site — was selected through compromises.

The intensity of sound waves are
measured in decibels, or db.

Later, the city staff calculated that 75
db at 300 feet diminishes to a little less than 65 db at 1,000 feet — the
city’s new setback distance between a gas well site and a home or other
protected use.

“That was by mere luck that it worked
out,” Cunningham said.

No other entity — with the exception of
a music festival under certain circumstances — is allowed to exceed the 65 db
limit beyond a property line, city staff said.

Instead, the city staff told the task
force that it might be better to require operators to conduct an ambient noise
study for a neighborhood as part of a permit application, the way many other
cities require, and hold operators to certain levels at or slightly above ambient.

But the task force declined to make the
recommendation.

The split votes highlight a division
between the citizen and industry-related members of the task force.

In evaluating low-frequency noise,
similar to the way Fort Worth now considers such noise not only from drilling
pad sites but also from compressor engines, Groth said the city may have to
consider the kind of device used to measure sound, since equipment capable of
measuring sound waves outside the range of human hearing can be more expensive.

Beyond certain levels, noise can cause
hearing loss, a common and well-known health effect. People who are exposed to
constant or high levels of noise can also suffer other adverse health effects.
Research has found effects similar to other stress-related illnesses, such as
loss of productivity, sleep disturbances, speech problems and high blood
pressure, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Gilbert Horton, spokesman for Devon
Energy, said Denton should not adopt rules that leave too much discretion to the
city employees.

“They can be enforced unreasonably,”
Horton said. “We’ve seen it in other municipalities.”

Denton resident Bruce Walker reminded
the task force that its charge, as part of a second phase of review of the
city’s ordinances, was to recommend improvements and not consider the noise and
setback rules from the first phase as the final word on the matter.

“It is to protect the citizens’ health
and welfare,” Walker said.

His wife, Elma Walker, told the task
force that noise regulation was important to the community, pointing to her own
experience when wells were drilled close to their home in Robson Ranch.

“It was a ridiculous amount of noise for
a year and a half,” Elma Walker said.

The task force agreed 5-0 to recommend
that the city evaluate whether its security requirements for well and
production sites are sufficient. They tabled discussion over surface
reclamation and maintenance items to next week.

The committee is scheduled to meet
through March and advance its recommendations to the City Council, which has
the final authority on the adoption of any new rules.

On Feb. 7, the City Council enacted a
four-month moratorium on new drilling permits while the city revises its
drilling and production ordinance.

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